Apple invites media for ‘education announcement’ in New York

Yesterday I wrote a post in which i predicted that there will be no paper back books. I guess that day is not far as Apple has just rolled out invitations to the media for an education announcement in New York, next Thursday, Jan 19.

The invite arrives following a flurry of speculation pertaining to the nature of the event, which was first hinted by AllThingsD. The publication reported on Jan. 2 that Apple’s presser will not be huge —at least not compared to the company’s splashy theatrical announcements—nor will it cover any iPad or Apple TV hardware news.

Instead, it will focus on iBooks, another report said. With education the focus, this leaves iBooks and perhaps textbooks, another market Jobs wanted to disrupt, as the main attraction. 

According to an excerpt from the authorized Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, Jobs wanted to disrupt the school textbook business:

He held meetings with major publishers about partnering with Apple, the book says. If textbooks were given away free on iPads he thought the publishers could get around the state certification of textbooks. Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Jobs believed that states would struggle with a weak economy for at least a decade. “We can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money,” he told Mr. Isaacson.